Lightning Strike in Guam, October 14, 2011

Name: Lightning Strike in Guam, October 14, 2011
Start: 2011-10-14T15:30
End: 2011-10-14T15:30
Location: Guam

October 14, 2011 · NWS GUM · 1 event in 1 county or zone

A 59-year-old fisherman was fishing in the shallows near the Hagatna boat Basin on the afternoon of 14 October when he was struck and killed by lightning at about 15:30 GST.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
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The toll

Deaths: 1
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What happened

The episode as NWS GUM wrote it up.

A 59-year-old fisherman was fishing in the shallows near the Hagatna boat Basin on the afternoon of 14 October when he was struck and killed by lightning at about 15:30 GST.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Guam wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Oct 13, 9:44 PM UTC, 7 hours 46 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Oct 13, 9:44 PM UTC, 7 hours 46 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TIYAN GU
744 AM CHST FRI OCT 14 2011

.SYNOPSIS...
PGUA WSR-88D SHOWS SCATTERED SHOWERS MOVING THROUGH THE MARIANAS
WATERS ASSOCIATED WITH A TRADE-WIND DISTURBANCE.

&&

.DISCUSSION...
SO FAR MOST OF THE SHOWERS HAVE MISSED THE ISLANDS...AND IN FACT
THERE IS QUITE A BIT OF SUNSHINE LEAKING THROUGH. NOW THE SHOWERS
ARE STARTING TO LESSEN A BIT ON RADAR. A NOONTIME UPDATE MAY BE
REQUIRED TO REDUCE CLOUDS...POP AND WEATHER. INITIAL FORECAST
EXTENDED THE SCATTERED SHOWERS BASED ON RADAR AT THE TIME AND
GFS40 QPF WHICH LOOKED THE STRONGEST IN THE AFTERNOON. THIS COULD
STILL HAPPEN SO IT NEEDS TO BE WATCHED A COUPLE MORE HOURS.
OVERALL WET SEASON IS BEGINNING TO WIND DOWN IN THE MARIANAS. A
FEW MORE WET EPISODES ARE LIKELY...BUT ITS STARTING TO LOOK LIKE
IT WILL JUST BE EPISODES OF MOISTNESS AGAINST A BACKGROUND OF
GRADUAL DRYING AS WE HEAD TOWARD DRY SEASON 2012. OTHERWISE...
GENERALLY BENIGN WIND AND MARINE CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED THROUGH
THE WEEKEND AND INTO NEXT WEEK.

&&

.EASTERN MICRONESIA...
A TRADE-WIND DISTURBANCE IS APPROACHING POHNPEI FROM KOSRAE THIS
MORNING. AT THE UPPER LEVELS...AN UPPER TROUGH EXTENDS SOUTHWESTWARD
FROM 20N178E TO A NEWLY FORMED TUTT CELL NORTHEAST OF POHNPEI NEAR
10N163E. FOR KOSRAE...CONVERGING LOW-LEVEL WINDS ASSOCIATED WITH THE
DISTURBANCE WILL CONTINUE TO COUPLE WITH DIVERGENT UPPER WINDS JUST
SOUTH OF THE TUTT TO SPARK OFF PERIODIC CONVECTION THRU TONIGHT.
LATEST WV SATELLITE IMAGERY INDICATES STRONG SUBSIDENCE AND ABUNDANT
DRY AIR ALONG THE WESTERN HALF OF THE TUTT CELL. DESPITE THE PASSAGE
OF THE DISTURBANCE...ELEMENTS RELATED TO THE TUTT CELL SHOULD
SUPPRESS SHOWER COVERAGE AT WIDELY SCATTERED CATEGORY FOR POHNPEI
INTO THIS EVENING. A SECOND WEAKER DISTURBANCE IS AFFECTING THE
MARSHALL ISLANDS. EXPECT SHOWERS TO CONTINUE OVER MAJURO THRU THIS
AFTERNOON...THEN DECREASING IN COVERAGE BY THIS EVENING. THIS WEAKER
DISTURBANCE WILL PASS NORTH OF KOSRAE AND COULD PRODUCE ANOTHER
ROUND OF SHOWERS FOR POHNPEI BY SUNDAY AFTERNOON. SOUTHWESTERLY FLOW
SOUTH OF THE AFOREMENTIONED UPPER TROUGH WILL BEGIN TO ADVECT VERY
DRY AIR FROM THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE TOWARD THE MARSHALLS LATER
TONIGHT AND POSSIBLY KOSRAE OVER THE WEEKEND. COMBINING WITH GENTLE
TRADES PROGRESSING WESTWARD ACROSS THE DATE LINE...A FAIR TRADE-WIND
REGIME WILL ARRIVE AT MAJURO BY SATURDAY...AND THEN KOSRAE ON SUNDAY.

&&

.WESTERN MICRONESIA...
SUBSIDENCE CONTRIBUTED BY BOTH AN UPPER HIGH TO THE NORTH AND ALSO
THE TUTT CELL NEAR POHNPEI WILL MAINTAIN PARTLY CLOUDY SKIES ACROSS
CHUUK THRU TONIGHT. THEN THE DISTURBANCE CURRENTLY NEAR POHNPEI WILL
PUSH WESTWARD TOWARD CHUUK ON SATURDAY WITH A FEW SHOWERS AND
THUNDERSTORMS. AFTERWARD...THE WEAKER DISTURBANCE FOLLOWING BEHIND
MIGHT YET TRIGGER MORE SHOWERS TOWARD EARLY NEXT WEEK. GENTLE TRADE
WINDS ARE GRADUALLY FILTERING INTO THE PHILIPPINE SEA ACROSS YAP AND
KOROR. TWO DISTINCTIVE BUT WEAK SURFACE TROUGHS EMBEDDED WITHIN THE
TRADES ARE GOING TO BRING SOME SHOWERS AND POSSIBLY A FEW
THUNDERSTORMS FOR KOROR LATER THIS AFTERNOON...AND THEN BOTH KOROR
AND YAP ON SATURDAY. FOR EARLY NEXT WEEK...THE UPPER HIGH NORTH OF
CHUUK WILL SHIFT WESTWARD AND PROMOTE FAIR CONDITIONS FOR BOTH
LOCATIONS.

&&

.GUM WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
GU...NONE.
MARIANAS WATERS...NONE.
&&

STANKO/CHAN

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.

Lightning, Guam

When: October 14, 3:30 PM GST
Where: Guam County, 0.04 mi SW of Agana
Deaths: 1 direct, 0 indirect
Reported by: Newspaper
Coordinates: 13.480, 144.750

The people who died

As the offices recorded each death: direct deaths were caused by the weather itself, indirect ones by something it set in motion.

Event	Date	Age	Sex	Where	Kind
Lightning, Guam	2011-10-14	59	Male	In Water	Direct

What these are

Lightning: A lightning strike that killed, injured or caused damage.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Guam in 2011 Every state in 2011 This day in weather history Warnings in Guam, October 2011

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 352491.